Chapter 3

"It really is a wonderful place you've got here Alice, how long have you been here?" Irwin asked politely, admiring the quaint and risqué art Alice had on the wall.

"It'll be a year in July, but I had my eye on this place for ages before I bought it. It was funny because I spotted it before my website really took off-"

"Oh you have a website?" Sharon interjected, "what kind of website is it?" Dana quickly looked at Alice in a panic; she wasn't sure how her mother would take the fact that her partner ran a lesbian social networking site.

"Oh, it's called 'The Chart', it's a social networking site."

"Ahh, I don't have much time for those, they're too complicated and a waste of time in my opinion."

'Saved' thought Dana, and Sharon continued, "So you say it 'took off'? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, our friend, Papi, invited people to join our site by email; she has a lot of friends. Then those friends invited their friends and we were getting thousands of hits a day. It was really an overnight thing. But to cut a long story short, I mean, we got a lot of investors and managed to get quite a lot of money from it and so, I bought the house."

"And the car?" Irwin asked.

"Oh, no, I had the car when I was working a lot as a journalist."

"Don't you still work, Alice?" Sharon sounded concerned.

"Oh yes! I work a lot, but a lot of my time is dedicated to 'The Chart'." Alice explained, trying her best to convince the pair that Dana really was alright with her.

"I see." Sharon seemed cool and calm with it all as she asked, "so Dana, got any matches coming up any time soon? You haven't been doing a lot."

"Oh no, there hasn't been a lot going on but there is a tournament next month that I'm training for. There is a lot of money in this one."

"Does that mean we won't be seeing a lot of you these three days?" Sharon felt let down, but happy that her daughter was doing something.

"Oh no no no, I'm just got a run a day planned, don't worry."

"Ahh good," chimed in Irwin, still admiring the pictures on the walls of Alice's living room. One had struck him but he wasn't sure why. There was a woman, no surprise there, but she was facing away from the room. She was on a bed, he thought, and had a quilt wrapped over her legs and around the very bottom of her back. The rest of her was naked, but there was nothing pornographic about the painting. On the woman's shoulder was a tattoo and on it said 'de vivre, d'aimer, de créer...'. "Alice?"

"Yes, Irwin?" she turned on her heel to see the man analyzing the painting she bought with Bette when she was 25.

"What does that mean?" and he pointed to the shoulder of the woman, "de vivre, d'aimer, de créer?"

"It means, 'to live, to love, to create'. It was funny because it was something I lived by when I was in college and then 2 years after leaving, I was at an art showing with our friend Bette and we found that. I knew what it meant and knew I had to have it. It was also a plus that Bette, who is a art manic by the way, liked it, and approved."

"It's a great piece of work."

"Oh Irwin, come off it, you know nothing about art." said Sharon, needless to say she 'wore the pants' in that family.

"And that shows how good it is, if a nobody like me can like it, then it must be alright, yeah?"

"Sure, Irwin. I'm glad you like it." said Alice. Now, Dana, who had kept remarkebly quiet through that whole conversation started to relax after her father had liked one of the things she thought he'd hate.

"So Dad, should I show you and Mom to your room?" Dana asked brightly.

"I'm sure we can find it if you can tell us which one it is." Sharon kept her demanding manner even when she felt most comfortable, and it was safe to say she didn't really feel particularly comfortable in this whole scenario.

"Sure, it's the second room on the right, upstairs. So you have the toilet then-"

"Yes Dana, then you have two room and the second one is ours. Ok." Irwin picked up the luggage and let his wife lead the way up the stairs.

"Well, that was intense." Dana said to Alice when she was sure her parents were out of ear shot.

"Nah, I'm sure it was ok. I'm glad he liked the painting."

"Oh yes, I am delighted."

"Oh shush baby, it's going to be ok," Alice pulled Dana closer to her and kissed her on the lips lightly. "you need to learn to relax a little."

"Yes, she does." Irwin said from the bottom step, "Don't worry Dana, we know you're happy here. And it really is a nice place, Alice."

"Thanks Irwin." Dana tried to push Alice away but she wouldn't let her as she wriggled her arm around her waist. Irwin laughed politely at his daughter's awkwardness and waited for his wife to come down the stairs.